Never forget a name again – Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

You’re networking at a conference, talking with a CEO of an important company. This should be your time to shine, but instead, your thoughts are dominated by the terrible fact that you can’t remember her name. It’s an awful, embarrassing situation, so how can you ensure that it never happens again?

Picture someone’s name

Our brains evolved to remember important input from our senses, such as the taste of a poisonous plant or the sight of an encroaching predator, rather than a dry fact.

Therefore, whenever you want to remember a plain, emotionless fact like someone’s name, you need to attach vivid images, smells or sounds to it.

Let’s imagine you meet a man call Tom Simpson. What can you do to remember his name? Well, why not attach the memory to the image of Homer Simpson being attacked by a tomcat? By connecting the dull information to the vivid image, you’ll find it much easier to remember.

And you’ll never be stuck in that awkward situation of forgetting a name again.